While I've been in the garden, I've been thinking about better ways to budget, and to make budgeting a more cohesive and complete task than what I do currently, which is keeping a general running tab of expenses and make sure I adhere to my budget. I have had a lot of trouble sticking to things such as spreadsheets as I find them cumbersome to handle, and have found that certain apps such as Mint don't do a great job for me with how they track my expenses or have issues with the current institutions I have. I have considered something like YNAB or Quicken, but don't want to pay for the services before I get a better opinion/idea of what may work for me. Thank you in advance!
I use Mint, and I found that it was a bit of a learning curve and cumbersom in the sense that some transactions had to be micro managed due to mislabling them (restaunt charges tagged as grocery stores or something like that)
But once I got it down and was more active in it, it because easier to use. I like it now.
@itslovefield wrote:I would be curious about input here as well. I am a bartender, and have cash daily. So, creating a traditional budget is difficult because of not knowing just how much I will bring in each day. I DO, however, have a spreadsheet tracking (and my planner, because I love writing things out) my daily income.
I am working on transitioning to a salaried, managerial position, which is a long time coming. So, (fingers crossed) hopefully, I'll be able to make that jump later this year. Until then, however...
My income is also pretty inconsistent based upon the time of year, as I'm still a full time college student. Budgeting is much easier for me during the summer months when I work full time, but I expierience the same struggles. Best of luck on your transition and I hope it goes your way!
@rosco75 wrote:I use Mint, and I found that it was a bit of a learning curve and cumbersom in the sense that some transactions had to be micro managed due to mislabling them (restaunt charges tagged as grocery stores or something like that)
But once I got it down and was more active in it, it because easier to use. I like it now.
I also had similar issues with Mint, which really tended to turn me off to the entire platform when I stopped using it a few years ago. Thank you for your expierience, I'll take another look at it!
I'm seconding YNAB. I have used this for years and have been able to pay down a signficant amount of debt in that time plus have saved for many things without stressing.
In addition, regarding another commenter that works as a bartender, my opinion is that an envelope budgeting method (which YNAB is) is probably the best method for someone with an inconsistent, cash-based/heavy income. That's what we used to do when I was in that kind of position. You add the money that you bring in each day to different categories as you go along so it will work with you based on the exact amount of money that you have on hand. It's hard to use forcasting tools for budgeting with that source of income because of the extreme variability, day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month. Busy times of the year bring in more than slower times so you can build up a reserve during the busy times to subsidize the slow times. Throw any extra money or a set amount each day/week/month into a "reserve" fund to balance out the slow times.
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